Currently, delivery services such as the United States Postal Service® (“USPS”®) deliver items to recipients based upon an address. The address may contain identifying information such as a name, a street, a city, a state, and a postal code, such as a five-digit ZIP Code®, representing a geographic area. The postal code may represent a smaller geographic area (or segment), such as the area represented by a nine-digit ZIP+4® code. For example, a nine-digit ZIP+4 code may identify geographic segment having a plurality of delivery points, such as residential block, a firm, or a floor of a high rise building. A delivery point can be defined as the mailing address of a Postal Patron where delivery personnel deliver mail, and may include a residential mailbox located on a curb, a door slot, a box on a house, a centralized group of mail boxes, or the location of a receptionist or mailroom. The additional digits of the ZIP+4 code allow more efficient sorting and delivery of items through the delivery process. In addition, high volume customers using USPS may receive discounts for providing a ZIP+4 Code on a mail item. For these reasons, it is desirable to “code” all addresses with a ZIP+4 code, that is, to provide the ZIP+4 Code as a element of the address.
Normally, those using an address list, such as mailers, can code addresses on the address list by using a reference database product that first standardizes the address and then assigns the correct ZIP+4 code to the address. This reference product is commonly referred to as a “ZIP+4 engine,” an example of which is the AMS API. The ZIP+4 engine accepts addresses with street, city, and state information and attempts to match them against addresses in a master address database such as the Address Management System (“AMS”) database, or a subset of a master address database, such as the Delivery Point File. The address database contains all possible deliverable addresses within a geographical area and may contain information regarding ranges of addresses for a given block in a given city with a five-digit ZIP Code.
USPS uses ZIP+4 Codes and address information to create delivery point bar codes. Delivery point bar codes are bar codes of eleven digits, where five digits are allocated to the ZIP Code, 4 digits are allocated to the ZIP+4 Code, and the last two digits are allocated to a unique delivery point. Thus, the ZIP Code may specify a specific area of a town, a ZIP+4 Code may represent a particular block on a street, and a delivery point code may represent a specific house on the block. Through the use of automated mail processing equipment, USPS is able to apply a delivery point bar code to mail items carrying a ZIP+4 Code, soon after the items are received from the customer. USPS then uses the bar code to sort the mail in delivery sequence order. As a result, a delivery employee can efficiently prepare the mail for delivery, and the time needed for delivery preparation is reduced.
It is possible, however, that an address presented to the ZIP+4 engine may not be found in the address database. Such an address is designated as “incorrect.” An incorrect addresses cannot be associated with a ZIP+4 code, cannot be validated to a delivery point, and cannot be supplied with a delivery point bar code. Therefore, it may be referred to as an “uncoded address.” An uncoded address may be identified by and received from various sources, such as a National Change of Address (“NCOA”) database or mailer supplied address lists. Such addresses may be combined into an incorrect address list that may then be submitted electronically in a standardized format to the National Customer Support Center (“NCSC”).
Currently, USPS operates an uncoded address resolution system (“UARS”) that is primarily used to process addresses submitted to USPS on change-of-address requests. A UARS record is created when a “new address” of a change-of-address order filed by a customer cannot be matched to an existing deliverable address in the DPF database. Any mailpiece that cannot be matched with an address in the DPF database is rejected from the automated mail stream. Each rejected mailpiece must then be manually handled and processed by a USPS employee. Inefficiencies resulting from manual handling of the mail can be very costly and time consuming, and can diminish customer satisfaction. Indeed, delays in the delivery of forwarded mail to new addresses is the fifth most common complaint from USPS customers.
UARS records are used to generate updates and corrections to the master address database (AMS). Currently, a majority of these updates and corrections are done manually. Such a manual operation is undesirable because it is a labor-intensive endeavor. Furthermore, all manual updates and corrections currently have to be re-keyed, introducing further possibility of human error. Manual corrections also preclude accurate tracking of corrections. Considering the above problems, UARS has had only limited success.
Manual address correction is also attempted when incorrect addresses are received by USPS from mailer lists. If a mailer transmits an incorrect address to USPS and requests correction of the address, a department in USPS tries to generate the correct address. By correcting the address, the chances of finding a matching ZIP+4 Code increase. The department receiving the correction request may be a District Address Management Systems (AMS) department of the USPS. After receiving a request, the AMS department may print out a hard copy of the request form and send the hardcopy form to delivery units in local post offices throughout the United States. The delivery units may fill out the forms with the correct address information and then mail the forms back to the AMS department.
Another method for updating mailer addresses includes sending incorrect addresses as incorrect address records to delivery unit computers, such as computers in local post offices. Delivery unit personnel may then print out a copy of the incorrect address record, use local direct knowledge of the geographic area to make manual corrections on the copy, specify the ZIP+4 Code, and mail the corrections to the AMS department. Once received, the corrected addresses with ZIP+4 Codes may be manually keyed into the AMS database by Address Management personnel.
Several problems are encountered using existing methods to update and correct uncoded addresses. First, delivery units sometime fail to respond to the mailings of printed copies of correction requests. Thus, addresses are not corrected. Second, there is no simple and efficient way to track the correction requests sent to delivery personnel and, thus, performance measurement is not always effective.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method to automatically notify delivery personnel that uncoded addresses need to be corrected, and allow delivery personnel to make electronic corrections of the addresses such that address records are resolved quickly with minimal error. It is further desirable to provide methods and systems to allow records of uncoded addresses to be selected without retyping old or new addresses, thus improving accuracy, ease of use, and the success rate of address correction.